Many of you tell me your dog is being labelled as a problem by other dog owners because they are not friendly to every dog they meet. Your dog may lunge, bark, or snap at dogs that get into her face, especially if she is on the lead.
Some of you are lucky and have a dog that is socially savvy and happy to engage with dogs of all shapes, sizes, and ages. She knows what to do to avoid conflict. However, many adult dogs behave differently. This may be a lack of socialisation; it may be the dog’s genetic traits. Dogs are individuals and some are just naturally more precious about their personal space. Some are born aloof, some may have been affected by a scary dog encounter when young, and others, especially older dogs, may feel unwell.
The worst offenders are new puppy owners who believe that socialisation of their hound is best achieved by letting the pup or adolescent dog, jump all over every dog it encounters, whether in the park or street. ‘She’s just a puppy, she just wants to say hello,’ says the newbie owner as they watch their 4- month American bulldog puppy attempt to mob the 4-year-old Yorkshire terrier. The ensuing fracas is only too familiar and in one brief exposure each dog may have learned to fear other dogs.
A common misconception is that ‘puppy licence’ is a universal given. Dogs within the same family or social group may for a while tolerate a pup’s physical impositions, but why would any adult dog feel it is fine to be ‘jumped’ and mobbed by a totally strange canine teenager? Neither dog is at fault; that lies with the owners and primarily with the puppy owner.
It is not just pups either. Owners of socially assertive dogs find it hard to accept that not all other dogs will love their pet as much as they do. Another familiar scenario is meetings between aloof or sensitive breed types and those dogs that have been selectively developed to be super sociable (Labradors, Pugs, some spaniels). These are the breed types that tend to adore everyone and everything, even burglars would be welcomed into their homes with a waggy tail.
Just as some humans fail to recognise the importance of personal space in their social interactions, some dogs are also bad at reading canine social signals. They’ll march up to every pooch they see and get in close and personal as soon as possible, failing to read the other dog’s signals to ‘back off’. Their owners are swift to blame the space-sensitive dog as it turns into a snarling gremlin on the other dog’s approach.
Another factor is physical differences. Some dogs have upright ears – they may look challenging. Dogs with rounded faces and low-slung ears, like spaniels, can look puppyish. Dogs with black fur may be hard for other dogs to read, as are dogs with squashed faces or hair over their eyes. The wonder is that with so much variation that our dogs get on at all. The fact that they do speaks volumes for their adaptability and ability to learn. Nonetheless, if you do own a very friendly dog try to remember that other dogs may need much more space. Learn about dog body language and how to recognise when or why things may escalate. See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcZKBoGn6uc and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozIloAsNrrI